Day 4: Teenage Justin

Day 4 of our 31 Days series, meet Justin!  When I was younger I used to hang out in my room for hours to draw, build models, rearrange my furniture to make it more interesting or just take things apart to see how things worked.  One of my most favorite hobbies was art.  I took a lot of art classes throughout my years of school, and had many opportunities to try different styles of art.  I really prefer drawing with pencil the most.

I was never a sporty kind of guy growing up.  I played flag football one year and a little bit of basketball, but that was about it.  I wasn’t very excited about sports, so I spent time doing more of what I was good at and that was art.

One thing that I did learn to appreciate was hard work. My dad was very good at remodeling, so I spend lots of time with him as his little helper while he remodeled the basement and other projects around the house.  I really enjoyed working with my hands and the thrill of finishing a project and being able to enjoy it.

I thought that I would be fun to add some of my cheesy wanabe glamor shots, that I had done for my senior pictures.  It’s always fun to go back and laugh at the old pictures and styles of back in the day.  I had quite the hair back then.

When I turned 19, I served an LDS mission for two years in the Netherlands and Belgium.  The Netherlands also known Holland is west of Germany in case you don’t know.  For some reason people get it mixed up with Denmark? I don’t know why…  It is a small country, but they have lots of people.  About over 15 million I think.

It was an awesome experience to be able to do full time missionary service for the people there.  I learned to speak Dutch and a little bit of Flemish while I was there.  I really miss the bakeries that they have there.  Every thing was always so fresh.  It was a really cool country to live in and explore.  The land is filled with windmills that were historically used to pump water with the power of the wind.  Here is a picture of me at Kinderdijk.

The primary mode of transportation was on a bicycle.  It was awesome to ride there because they have designated paths just for biking.

After I got back from my mission I went to school and finished a degree in drafting technology.  Even though I really liked art, I didn’t think that there was a future in it for me.  I really liked technical drawing so that’s why I got a degree in it.  I really enjoy drawing plans of things that would eventually be build.  I worked for an architectural designer for a year then a civil engineer for two years.

Shortly after working for a while I met my beautiful wife Cassity, in the apartment complex that I that I lived in.  Everything has been history since.  That is a whole different story on it’s own that you will have to read about later.  Until next time, hang tight for day 5.

In case you missed one of the other 31 days, here are links.

Day 1: The Whole Famn Damily

Day 2: Teenage Cassity

Day 3: Time To Meet Justin